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Chapter Three THE EAST AFRICAN COMMUNITY
INTRODUCTION
The East African Community is a regional intergovernmental organisation having its headquarters in Arusha, Tanzania with the Republics of Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda and the United Republic of Tanzania as Partner States. The Treaty for the Establishment of the EAC was signed by the founder three Partner States: Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania on 30th November 1999 and entered into force on 7th July 2000 following its ratification by the three states. The Republics of Rwanda and Burundi were granted full membership of the EAC on 1st July 2007 after signing the treaty of accession thereby bringing the total number of Partner States in the EAC to five. The EAC’s mandate is to spearhead regional integration in the EAC region (East African Community, 2009:1).
HISTORY OF THE EAST AFRICAN COMMUNITY
Regional integration is not a new phenomenon in East Africa; rather the original EAC countries of Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania have had a long history of cooperation dating back to the pre-independence era. For example Kenya and Uganda established a Customs Union in 1917 which the then Tanganyika joined in 1927. The three States thereafter established the East African High Commission (1948-1961), the East African Common Services Organisation (1961-1967) and the East African Community (1967-1977). The East African Community created in 1967 was a showcase not only in Africa but also in the entire world. At the height of its performance, the East African Community was recognized as one of the world’s models of regional integration. There was unprecedented interaction among the people of the region. The Community operated common services such as airline; postal and telecommunications; power, railways and harbours; several research organisations and a literary development centre; among others (Kategaya, 2000:12).
Unfortunately, this success story was not to last and in 1977 the East African Community broke up owing largely to political and ideological differences between the Heads of State. With that break up, the East African states lost over sixty years of cooperation, notably the benefits of constructing economies based on the exploitation of benefits of shared resources, economies of scale and leverage in negotiations of trade deals at global level. Following the break up of the Community, each Partner State embarked, at great cost and at lower efficiency, upon the establishment of services and industries that had previously been provided at the Community level.
Scholars on East African integration (Mugyenyi & Zeija, 2006; Kibua & Tostensen, 2005) widely attribute the collapse of the Community in 1977 to three main factors:
- The inequitable distribution of costs and benefits among the Partner States. Kenya as a result of her strategic location, was more industrialized than the rest, she therefore continued to export to other economies of the Community more than Uganda and Tanzania. Kenya dominated the export sector by 90% and Uganda and Tanzania were sharing a meagre 10% of the inter country trade. It is a result of this inequitable distribution of benefits that made Tanzania and Uganda to continue viewing the East African Community project as a project by Kenya to “employ” Uganda and Tanzania as her trade “agents” for a small “commission” (Mugyenyi & Zeija, 2006: 4).
- The ideological differences between the Partner States. Tanzania adopted socialism as a strategy for economic development. Uganda attempted a mixed ideology of socialism and capitalism. Kenya, because of the influence of white settlers and European entrepreneurial influence adopted capitalism as its development ideology. It has to be appreciated that this was the period of the cold war and thus the ideological conflict was a key factor in the relations of the three states (Kibua & Tostensen, 2005:2).
- The personality clashes between the Heads of State of the Partner States after Idi Amin’s 1971 military coup in Uganda. President Nyerere refused to recognize Amin as the President of Uganda. He refused to sit at the same table with Idi Amin whom he regarded as a ‘treacherous army leader’ (Kibua & Tostensen, 2005:2). In retaliation, Amin chased away all Tanzanians that were employed in Uganda under the EAC. From then onwards, the EAC Authority, consisting of the three Heads of State, never met. This was disastrous for the Community, since under the EAC Treaty of that time, all authority was vested in the Summit in contrast to the current Treaty where exclusive authority is largely vested with the Council of Ministers. This incapacitation of the EAC’s decision making Authority eventually led to its collapse.
Following the collapse of the Community in 1977, the three East African countries travelled different ways but all arrived at the same destination: that regional integration would benefit all the countries. Therefore, after a several year hiatus, moves were made to revive the erstwhile cooperative venture, leading at first to the Nairobi Communiqué of 1991, and two years later, to an Agreement re-establishing the EAC Secretariat in 1996. In November 1999, the Heads of States of the EAC Partner States formally re-launched the Treaty establishing the East African Community. This Treaty was subsequently ratified by the three Partner States and entered into force in July 2000 (Kibua & Tostensen, 2005:2). In November 2006, the EAC Heads of State granted full membership of the EAC to the Republics of Burundi and Rwanda. The two Republics were officially integrated into the EAC on 1st July 2007 after they signed the treaty of accession.The new Treaty for the Establishment of the EAC is intended to provide an appropriate form of regional arrangement which should avoid the pitfalls of the previous initiatives. For example, the policy making role has been removed from the Heads of State and given to the Council of Ministers. Also, withdrawal from Membership of the EAC has been made more difficult by the requirement in Article 145 of the Treaty for the Establishment of the EAC which states that such a proposal must be supported by not less than two-thirds majority of all the Members of that Partner State’s National Assemblies. The running of the EAC is now also based on two fundamental principles; namely people-centred and market driven.
The Treaty establishing the EAC was a more serious commitment to the integration process and laid the basis for negotiations of a complete trade regime through a Protocol for the establishment of a Customs Union whereby all taxes on goods between the EAC Partner States were to be removed and a Common External Tariff established. It also spelt out the vision and process for deeper integration through establishment of a Common Market whereby full movement of persons, labour, services, capital and the right of residence in the Community were to be achieved, subsequently, a Monetary Union whereby Partner States would have same macroeconomic policies and use a common currency and eventually a Political Federation with common foreign and security policies.
OBJECTIVES OF THE EAST AFRICAN COMMUNITY
The main objective of the EAC according to Article 5(1) of the Treaty for the Establishment of the EAC, is to widen and deepen cooperation among the Partner States in among other areas, political, economic, social, cultural, health, education, science and technology, defence, security, legal and judicial affairs for their mutual benefit (EAC 2002:12). The vision of the EAC is to achieve these objectives through a step by step process beginning with the establishment of a Customs Union (which commenced in January 2005 and will reach its pinnacle in December 2009), followed by a Common Market, subsequently a Monetary Union and ultimately a Political Federation of the East African states.
To this end, Article 5(3) of the Treaty stipulates the following: “The Community shall ensure:
- the attainment of sustainable growth and development of the Partner States by promoting a more balanced and harmonious development of the Partner States;
- the strengthening and consolidation of co-operation in agreed fields that would lead to equitable economic development within and between the Partner States and which would in turn, raise the standard of living and improve the quality of life of their populations;
- the promotion of sustainable utilization of the natural resource base in the region while taking measures that would effectively protect the natural environment of the Partner States;
- the strengthening and consolidation of the long standing political, economic, social, cultural and traditional ties and associations between the peoples of the Partner States so as to promote a people-centred mutual development of these ties and associations;
- the mainstreaming of gender in all its endeavours and the enhancement of the role of women in cultural, social, political, economic and technological development;
- the promotion of peace, security and stability within, and good neighbourliness among the Partner States;
- the enhancement and strengthening of partnerships with the private sector and civil society in order to achieve sustainable socio-economic and political development; and
- the undertaking of such other activities calculated to further the objectives of the Community, as the Partner States may from time to time decide to undertake in common” (EAC Secretariat, 2002:13).
Declaration
Dedication
Acknowledgement..
Abstract..
Table of contents.
List of tables.
List of figures
Abbreviations
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
1.1 Introduction.
1.2 Background to the study
1.3 Problem statement
1.4 Significance of the study
1.5 Objectives of the study
1.6 Hypothesis
1.7 Research methodology.
1.9 Limitations of the study
1.10 Definition of concepts
1.11 Sequence of chapters
CHAPTER TWO: REGIONAL INTEGRATION INSTITUTIONS: AN OVERVIEW
2.1 Introduction..
2.2 Rationale for the establishment of regional integration institutions.
2.3 Characteristics of regional integration institutions
2.4 Brief overview of the performance of selected regional integration institutions in Africa…
2.5 Summary..
CHAPTER THREE: THE EAST AFRICAN COMMUNITY
3.1 Introduction
3.2 History of the East African Community
3.3 Objectives of the East African Community
3.4 Fundamental and operational principles of the East African Community
3.5 Organs of the East African Community
3.6 Overview of the performance of the East African Community
3.7 Explanations on the shortcomings of the East African Community
3.8 Institutional framework as a factor in explaining the shortcomings of the East African Community
3.9 Summary
CHAPTER FOUR: ORGANISATIONAL EFFECTIVENESS: AN OVERVIEW
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Organisational effectiveness theory
4.3 Determinants of organisational effectiveness
4.4 Summary
CHAPTER FIVE: ORGANISATIONAL EFFECTIVENESS OF THE EAST AFRICAN COMMUNITY
5.1 Introduction
5.2 Organisational effectiveness of the East African Community
5.3 Organisational effectiveness overview of the European Union – A comparative analysis
5.4 Summary
CHAPTER SIX: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
6.1 Conclusion
6.2 Recommendations
6.3 Suggestions for further study.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
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